Camp Boxwell at The Narrows

In June of 1930, the Nashville Area Council of The Boy Scouts of America located a summer campground at the Narrows of the Big Harpeth River on 100 plus acres owned by Nashvillians Justin Potter, John Blair and W.L. Lucas. The Narrows site provided a deep-water swimming hole plus a river loop that allowed canoeists to put-in upstream and travel 5 ½ miles downstream circling a steep limestone bluff and taking-out only 220 land yards from where they put-in. Vanderbilt University Track Coach William J. Anderson was camp director and “Coach” was assisted by several members of his track team along with volunteers who taught classes on outdoor activities. Upon arrival, campers were assigned to one of 10 tents accommodating ten campers each. Two additional tents housed the camp cooks and the director's staff. After stowing their gear, the campers elected a mess hall director, a postmaster, a lost and found man, and reporters who filed stories with the Nashville Banner and the Tennessean newspapers. Each tent chose a tent leader and elected a representative to the Camp Council that made and enforced camp rules and judged and sentenced violators.

The center of the camp featured a flagpole, fire pit, assembly area, and athletic fields. The camp’s mess hall was on the ridgetop above the current Harris Street parking lot. The assembly area and tents were scattered throughout the wide hollow on the far side of the mess hall. The camp’s waterfront was on the Harpeth Riverbank to the left of the kiosk at the Harris Street take-out, where summer campers once studied for merit badges in swimming, water safety, and canoeing.

Camp Boxwell was named for Leslie “Box” Boxwell, manager of the Tennessee Metal Culvert Company, who served as Nashville BSA Council President. "Box" offered the use of his company’s earth-moving equipment for camp improvements and its flatbed trucks to transport campers to and from the Narrows. The camp's mess hall was supervised by Walter Whitaker, who cooked for scouts during the summer and prepared meals at a Vanderbilt fraternity house during winter semesters.

Scouts awoke to the sound of the bugler at 6:30 AM and assembled at the flagpole for flag raising and group calisthenics. For its first 11 years, Camp Boxwell had no showers, so bathing was done early in the morning in the chilly waters of the Harpeth River. Walter served breakfast at 7:30, then scouts returned to their tents for inspection and two hours of Scout School while council representatives met to deal with camp issues. At Scout School, volunteer instructors taught artificial respiration, handicrafts, bird watching, first aid, reptile studies, forestry, and civics. Bugling was also offered but the student horn blowers were required to practice out of hearing range.

Following lunch, scouts were free to hike the 100 acres of bluffs and hollows of the Narrows property, play baseball or volleyball or escape the July heat by taking a dip at the waterfront. During “free swims” each scout was required to sign-in and designate a “buddy” of similar swimming ability. Every few minutes the waterfront director would blow his whistle for a “buddy check” that required each pair of “buddies” to join hands and thrust them skyward to confirm all swimmers were safe.

Dinner and flag lowering ceremonies occurred at dusk. After the evening meal, scouts would participate in stunt nights or tell ghost stories around the campfire.

In 1940, Boxwell at the Narrows made capital improvements that included an electric generator, new mess hall, shower house, filtration plant for drinking water, and a health tent. Eight years later newly hired Council President Ward Akers determined the steep hills and deep hollows of the Narrows property were not conducive to the expansion plans he had in mind. Following the 1948 camping season, Boxwell moved from its Narrows of the Harpeth location to Rock Island on the Caney Fork River near McMinnville TN.

The Narrows acreage remained under the ownership of the Middle Tennessee Council, BSA and was used as a weekend camping location for area scout troops until 1978, when The Council sold the property to the State of Tennessee to be used as a state park.

By Chuck Neese from Research by Grady Eades, virtualboxwell.org

Hit Song Inspired by Narrows of the Harpeth

If you’re a country music fan, you’re probably familiar with singer John Anderson and his hit songs, “Swinging”, “Seminole Wind” and “I’m Just An Old Chunk Of Coal”. But you may not know that one of those top five chart toppers was inspired and written by the late songwriter, Billy Joe Shaver, as he climbed the steep Bluff Trail at the Harpeth River State Park.

The back story, as told by Shaver in an interview with the Songfacts.com website, goes as follows:

“I was about to die because I’d been doing so much dope and just everything in the world you could think of and drinking and just about driving everybody crazy. There was this place outside of Nashville that’s called the Narrows of the Harpeth River and there’s this peak-like thing out there, and it’s a real sheer drop-off cliff. You have to go up a real treacherous path to get to it.  Not many people know about it, but my son had showed it to me. And it was at the top of this thing that I arrived one night when I felt I was about to die. There was an alter up there, it looked like the wind, rain or something had hewn the alter out and it looked like a mushroom. There was just a small place between the alter and the sheer cliff. I was just so ashamed of myself for what I’d done, I asked God to help me. I thought I’m just a worthless good-for-nothing dragging everybody down. I found myself on my knees with my hands and elbows on top of the alter and asking God to help me. That’s when he gave me that song.

All of the sudden everything brightened up for me and this inaudible voice told me to go, to get out of Nashville. I left Nashville and I went cold turkey on everything. I quit smoking, drinking, doping, doing the whole smear."

The song that Billy Joe believed God gave him on the Narrows of the Harpeth Bluff Trail was, “I’m Just An Old Chunk Of Coal (But I’m Gonna Be A Diamond Someday)”. The lyrics recall Billy Joe’s troubled emotional state the evening in 1980 when he climbed the Bluff Trail over the Montgomery Bell Tunnel and pleaded with God to help him beat his drug and alcohol addiction.

He stated that he came down the Bluff Trail “singing the first part of the song” and when he got to the foot of the trail, he had the song half written.  County singer John Anderson recorded Billy Joe’s song, and it reached #4 on Billboard Magazine’s Hot Country Singles in March of 1981.

“I’m Just An Old Chunk of Coal” was also recorded by Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson & Miranda Lambert.

Meet Park Manager, Bill Morton

If you knew Bill Morton in his youth, you wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he grew up to be a park ranger. Everything Bill did in his formative years suggested he was destined for a career with Tennessee’s state parks. 

Bill was reared in White Bluff only three miles from Montgomery Bell State Park. He’d ride his bicycle on park trails and roads where he connected with nature and developed a love for the outdoors. When Bill was old enough, he worked five summers as an attendant at the Park’s boat dock and later became a Seasonal Interpretive Ranger. 

As a Boy Scout, Bill acquired a passion for conservation and became one of only 5% of Scouts to fulfill the requirements of leadership, service, and outdoor skills needed to attain the highly regarded Eagle Scout rank. 

Bill expanded his interest in preserving nature when he attended the University of Tennessee at Martin where he graduated in 1997 with a degree in Natural Resource Management.

The next year Bill was sworn in as a full-time Park Ranger and served his initial assignment at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park. In 2001 he moved to Radnor Lake State Natural Area and in 2004 he became the first ranger at the newly formed Harpeth River State Park. Before then, The Narrows and Mound Bottom historical sites were managed as part of Montgomery Bell State Park.

In 2022, Bill accepted the position of Park Manager at the Harpeth River State Park and concentrated on the design and construction of a visitor’s center and picnic pavilions overlooking the Indigenous Mississippian Historical site at Mound Bottom. 

Bill married his college sweetheart, Melinda, who is a school librarian in Fairview. The couple are parents of daughter Mallory, a freshman psychology major at Belmont University.

Be sure to say hello to Bill the next time you cross paths at the Park. Thank you, Bill, for all you do!